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Collectors sometimes use unorthodox methods for storing their specimens before they get to the Illinois Natural History Survey’s arthropod collections. All the tarantulas shown here once shared a single pickle jar. They were meticulously separated and relabeled, and now are in proper storage. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

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Tommy McElrath takes readers Behind the Scenes of the INHS insect collection. "Storing your dead tarantulas in a gallon-sized pickle jar is not the best solution to long-term preservation. Especially when those tarantulas are toe-tagged – like corpses in a morgue."